


Getting into the game, and out again

by commanderlurker (honeybee592)



Series: Cats, the V is silent [4]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-13 17:16:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18473491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeybee592/pseuds/commanderlurker
Summary: Cats and Theron's meet cute.Follows the events of Forged Alliances.





	Getting into the game, and out again

“And then I said, ‘Nobody steals my ship’, and blasted him in the nuts!”

The crew explode with laughter. Doesn’t matter that they’ve heard the story of Skavak’s downfall a a thousand times. They ignore the undercurrent of dread that the _Majestic Princess_ could be stolen again. That’s why there’s only five of them physically at this table in Carrick Station. Akaavi joins them in holo-form from the ship, keeping guard against would-be ship stealers.

A droid rolls over and interrupts the laughter with cherry beeping.

“We’re good for drinks, thanks,” Risha says.

“Speak for yourself. I’ll take another Old Trusty.”

The droid whistles with annoyance. “T3-G2 = recruiting for classified operation.”

“What?”

The droid doesn’t bother answering, just projects a holo onto the table. A man in a sweet leather jacket who clearly cares a lot about his hair scans the group, then suavely puts his hands on his hips and addresses Cats. “You’re not easy to find, Captain. But I imagine that’s a good thing in your line of work.” So they’ve got themselves a smooth operator.

Cats sits back, rests her arm on the back of the booth. “Seems you’ve found me. What do you want?”

“I’m with the SIS. We’ve got a party coming up, and you’re on the guest list.”

“I don’t do parties, thanks.”

“Even if it’s a party the Empire won’t enjoy?”

“You’re not selling this, sweet cheeks.” She makes a show of inspecting her fingernails.

The SIS guy shifts from one foot to the other. “What if I said credits were on the table?”

Cats smiles. “That’s more like it. How much are you willing to pay for me to attend this ‘party’?”

The crew watch on as Cats negotiates. Risha chips in when she thinks the SIS guy is pulling a fast one. By the time the conversation ends, Cats doesn’t think she’s going to an actual party with drinks and snacks and a jukebox. At least the SIS guy looks just as confused as well. The holo flickers away and the droid trundles along.

“Do you know what you’ve gotten us into, Captain?” Guss asks.

“No idea,” Cats replies. “So. Anyone up for a party?”

*

Cats and Corso stride into the Republic base. Typical mission set up: massive holoprojector in the middle of the room streaming combat simulations, screens with screeds of diagrams and code scrolling by. The SIS guy from the holo paces while a massive dude in Republic armour talks in clipped sentences about ‘squadrons’ and ‘maximum speed’ and ‘securing LZs.’

“Glad you could make it. Theron Shan, SIS.”  Shan shakes Cats’ hand. Strong, good grip.

“If this is what you call a party, then you need to get out more.”

“Would you believe me if I said I’d been told that before?”

Cats scoffs. “Yeah, I would.”

Shan looks like he’s been slapped with a fish but he regains his composure fast enough. “This is Colonel Darok. He’s coordinating the attack on Korriban.”

Korriban? Are they out of their fucking minds? This was supposed to be a party!

“No, ma’am, we are not out of our fucking minds.” Darok. He looks pissed.

Shit, did Cats say that out loud?

Cats makes sure she keeps her mouth shut for the rest of the briefing. She presses her tongue to the back of her teeth, just to be certain. Darok and Shan outline the plan to ‘hit the Empire where it hurts’ with ‘everything we’ve got’ and for some reason that includes Cats. During a pause, she leans over to Corso.  "What the fuck does 'exfiltrate' mean?" she whispers.

“Get out fast,” Corso whispers back.

Oh, that’s okay then. Cats is good at quick exits.

Finally the briefing wraps up.

“Victory for the Republic depends on you,” Darok says.

“Dependable is my middle name,” says Cats. More like, what the fuck is going on? She better get a dossier. All she really got was ‘infiltrate sith academy. Steal data. Exfiltrate.’

Darok nods. “See you down there, soldier.” And he strides away purposefully,

_I’m not a fucking soldier_ , Cats thinks. Then she second guesses herself. “Corso,” she whispers. “Did I just say anything out loud?”

He shakes his head.

Shan comes up. He’s got swagger. He’s kinda cute. Short, but cute.

“Just so you know, the last time I worked with a spy, it didn’t end well for him,” Cats says.

Shan huffs. “Darmas Pollaran, right? He was small fry, a two bit player.”

Corso shifts beside Cats. “That was the wrong thing to say, friend,” he mutters.

Shan looks between the two of them and snorts. “What. Am I missing something? Did you--”

“Drop it. Trust me on this,” Corso says.

“Okay, okay. Anything else you need from me?” Shan asks. He’s got a couple of implants, two circles above is left eyebrow, and a longer arc framing his left eye socket. “Captain?”

Shit. She’s staring. “Just send me the coordinates and we’ll be there.”

He smiles. He looks better when he’s brooding.

*

“Infiltrate the Sith Academy?” Risha says. She’s got that disapproving look on her face. The serious one that means Cats is in trouble. “Sounds like a suicide mission. You don’t even know these people and they’re sending you-- _us_ \--to the _Sith Academy_.”

Bowdaar complains as well. Loudly. As if there is any other way for Bowdaar to complain.

“It’s paying well!” Cats protests.

“We don’t need the credits,” Risha says.

“They probably made that number up because they knew they would not have to pay it,” Akaavi says.

Cats pishes at their doubt. “What could possibly go wrong?”

“Now you’ve jinxed it,” Guss says.

“You want to come with, Guss? A jedi like you could be useful down there.”

“Uh, um, I can’t, I’m sorry. I need to wash my hair that day.”

Fine. All the more fun for Cats and Coro then.

*

Just as Risha predicted, Korriban is a suicide run. But without the suicide. So, just a fucking nightmare. The mission appears to be made to look like an organised strike by mercs, not the Republic. Typical. None of the other waves wear Republic armour or insignia, but Cats doesn’t have a chance to strike up conversation and ask if a cute man in a leather jacket crashed their party to invite them to this clusterfuck.

Speaking of cute men, this guy just won’t shut up with the orders. If he’s so sure of where Cats needs to go, then maybe he should be down here instead of up in the safety of HQ.

Asshole.

*

After Korriban, Tython. Cats was just going to slip away when she got back to the ship, ‘accidently’ hit the wrong hyperlane, but her conscience got the better of her. Plus, they hadn’t paid her yet.

At least Guss comes with her this time. This is supposed to be his turf, after all. And lucky for Cats, Shan is just as talkative on Tython as he was on Korriban.

*

“Something doesn’t add up.” Cats paces the deck of the _Majestic Princess_. Her shiny Medal of Valor glints off her chest. She pauses her pacing to rub it with the back of her glove.

“Agreed, and I don’t believe in coincidences.” Risha. She’s been pouring over the data Cats skimmed.

“The two attacks had to be coordinated.”

“Inside job?”

“Sounds like it.” Cats sighs. “Oh well, not much we can--”

The holocomm chirps. Cats slaps the accept button and look who’s calling. Agent Pretty Boy.

“Captain, just the woman I was looking for.”

Cats folds her arms. “Well, who else did you expect when you called my number?”

Risha smiles behind her hand.

Shan seems unperturbed. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you. I was hoping for a drink, maybe.”

Cats latches onto the word ‘drink’. “Sounds great.”

“Cantina? Half an hour?”

“It’s a date.” She hangs up on him. Looks up at the space where he’d just been. Looks at Risha. “Did I--”

“Want me to find you a clean shirt for your _date_ , Captain?”

_Fuck._

*

Bowdaar agrees to chaperone. He lurks at the bar, keeping out of trouble and staying in Cats’ line of sight. Shan launches straight into his conspiracy theory, no small talk. So Cats is on the same page as him, that’s something. But how both the Republic and Empire knew how to attack each other at once isn’t her problem.

“The real question is, are you going to take your shiny medal home like Darok’s hoping, or are you ready to start digging?” Shan leans back, sips his beer.

Cats polishes the medal again. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was planning on doing. The credits came through. Thanks.” She eases herself out of the booth.

Shan blinks, looks up. “Uh, wait, you’re not actually leaving, are you?”

Cats puts her hands on her hips. “Yeah, I am. I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m not that.”

“Here me out, please. Let me buy you another drink.”

She sits back down. Shan waves to the server. Some imaginary date this turned out to be. The guy just won’t shut up about work.

“I need someone outside the system. Someone who’s used to working outside the lines, around the edges. I need to find out everything I can about Darok and that Sith Lord you talked to. See if there are any connections. You worked for Dodonna, you know what you can do with the right kind of benefactors. I know how that turned out, but trust me, I’m not secretly working for the Empire.”

Cats bristles. Guess that wound is still open.

“Have a think. I’ll be in contact.” This time Shan’s the one to get up.

Cats rubs her temples. What the hell just happened? Bowdaar wanders over and finishes Cats’ drink for her.

“Guess your date’s over,” he says.

“I don’t think it ever started,” Cats replies.

*

Manaan has not been Corso’s favourite planet. That Cats agreed to come here at all surprised him. But here they are, half drowned and half burned chasing after a conspiracy so complex Corso’s having trouble keeping it straight in his head.

He and Cats squelch their way through the base’s corridors. Water still drips from Corso’s hair, even after ringing it out more than once. Cats stops to take her tie out. She flips her head forward and shakes her head, flicking Corso, and the few passers by, with water. People glare. Corso glares back. They don’t know what they’ve been saved from. Then he sneaks a look at Cats with her hair down, all knotty and bedraggled. She’s beautiful, she really is.

Cats ties her hair back up in a bun and they continue. They find Shan and a sith alone in the chamber. The sith’s the one who helped them get out of the underwater lab. Still, Corso’s hand goes to his blaster, but he tries to make it casual. There’s nothing casual about the way Cats stalks up to Shan and punches him, an uppercut, right on the jaw. Shan staggers back, hand to his face. He even looks kinda scared. Corso tries not to smile.

“That was for setting me up,” Cats spits. She turns to the sith. “You’re Lana, I presume. Thanks for the help.” She doesn’t punch her though. She’s thinking about it, Corso can tell: her fist is still balled, arm bent and ready to swing. _Please don’t punch the sith._

Shan rubs his jaw. Blood seeps around the edge of his mouth, stains his glove. An awful crunching happens when he tentatively moves his jaw.

“All that bullshit better have been worth it,” Cats says.

“It was, thank you, again.” Lana. “I mean it.” For a sith, she’s pretty nice.

Lana explains that Cats and Corso’s near drowning wasn’t in vain. Darok, and Sith Lord Arkous, are working together, manipulating both sides for their true cause, the Order of Revan. Corso glances at Cats and sees her eyes glaze over, her jaw slack. He turns back to Lana and concentrates.

“So, who’s this Revan guy?” Corso asks.

“And where can I get a following like that?” Cats mutters.

“I’m sure Theron could tell you all about him,” Lana says. She’s smiling. Like this is fun.

Shan scowls. “He was a Jedi, then he was a Sith, then he was a Jedi again, all about three hundred years ago. You want to know more? I’ll send you a history file.” He talks fast, blood spittle and all, and there’s something about his tone that tells Corso there’s a greater meaning between Lana’s comment and Shan’s flippant history.

“Please don’t,” Cats says.

“Arkous and Darok are high ranking members of their respective sides. If they’re involved, then there are likely more,” Lana explains.

“That means we have no idea who we can really trust,” Theron adds.

Uh oh. Corso can see where this is going. Cats isn’t going to want anything to do with this, and neither does Corso.

“This is boring. Can I go now?” Cats says. She fidgets, scuffs the floof.

Shan’s scowl deepens. Lana’s smile widens.

“Yes, that’s probably for the best,” Lana says. “We should leave separately. It’s been a pleasure meeting you. May the Force ever serve you well.” She smiles again as she bows, and nods to both Cats and Corso before heading to the exit.

That just leaves Shan. An awkward silence descends. The chamber’s air conditioner rattles and hisses.

“Cool, well--” Cats starts.

“I should thank--” Shan starts.

They both indicate that the other should speak first, and after another stop-start complete with hand gestures, Shan speaks.

“Thank you, again. I mean it. And I’m sorry about what happened down there. You, uh, pack quite the punch.” He flexes his jaw. “And Lana’s right. We should leave here. I’ll be in contact. And, suffice to say, don’t go spreading this around.”

Cats rolls her eyes but thankfully doesn’t say anything.

Corso keeps a subtle eye out as they walk back to the hangar. Cats at least seems to have calmed down.

“Date two?” Risha asks as Cats and Corso walk up the ramp.

“Don’t even,” Cats mutters.

*

Cats declines Bowdaar’s offer to chaperone again. She’s not sure why, but where she is, still nursing her first drink, drumming her fingers on the table. Waiting. She could be into her third by now, but she’s playing it safe since she’s on her own. She’s played the last few days in her mind over and over again, discussed the situation with her crew, even done some background reading on the holonet. One thing comes through clear: she’s in way over her head.

Theron Shan clearly thinks more of her than he should. Or maybe her reputation of Republic hero is actually deserved. Maybe she should give herself more credit. She should definitely be charging more credits.

She catches a glimpse of a red jacket at the bar, a flash of teeth smiling in thanks. He is kinda pretty. And Lana might not be that bad, or so Akaavi thinks. Then Theron starts walking over and Cats’ stomach turns to durasteel.

“Hey, there you are,” he says. He slides into the booth. His knees knock Cats. She sits up, folds her legs under the seat. “Our investigations are going well. Lana’s uncovered more Revanites embedded in both the Empire and Republic, and we’ve got leads on their Rakata tech.”

“Great.” She doesn’t mean it.

“This is going to take a while. We’re not going to jeopardize the mission by going in hot. We need to be calm and careful.”

Yeah, whatever.

“Highly-trained bravado aside, we’re up against some long odds here. Are you sure you still want to be dragged into all of this?” Theron asks.

“Absolutely not.”

Theron actually looks surprised. He opens his mouth and closes it again.

“Listen. I told you this already. I’m a small time smuggler who got lucky. Or unlucky. I still can’t tell. I did what I had to to get Rogun off my back, and that just happened to lead me to the Voidwolf--who wasn’t small time, and neither was Darmas--and straight into the Republic’s good books.” She looks Theron right in the eyes. “I don’t care about your conspiracies. I don’t care about the politics. I care about exploiting both to make credits. That’s all.” Cats presses her palms to the table and stands. “We’re done.”

“But--”

“We’re _done_. Find someone else to do you and your sith’s dirty work.” And she does something she doesn’t normally do in a cantina: turns her back. She walks up the stairs, feeling lighter already.

*

The ship mood is back to those dark post-Darmas days. And here Corso thought that was long behind them. The break away with the family, the sort-of vacation on Makeb, saving the day and getting the girl, all that had put Cats back on an even keel. And now, here they are again, walking around like they’re on ice.

Bowdaar and Guss play a quiet game of cards. Risha reads. Akaavi eats a meal. Corso’s cleaning Torchy. They’re all in the same cabin, but no one’s speaking, and Cats isn’t even on the ship. She’ll be back soon enough though, they’d just gotten the message from her. Doesn’t sound like her meeting with Theron went too well.

Nothing’s gone well since meeting Theron. Or Lana. A sith. Corso still can’t believe it. Akaavi did her best at explaining why a sith might ally with an SIS agent, but honestly, it all went over Corso’s head.

The ship airlock swishes open. C2-N2’s greetings echo. Boots stomp on the metal grating. Louder. Louder. They stop. Everyone turns to look at Cats. Collective dread.

“We’re done here,” Cats announces. “No more Republic, no more Empire, no more freaky fish mutants--no offense, Guss. We’re going back to doing what we do best: making credits from stupid people. Risha, we’re getting you that planet, too. Bowdaar, you know of any slaves that need busting out? ‘Cause I’ve got an itchy trigger finger. Akaavi, you want to stick around and do some damage? Guss, you’re a great quartermaster, but I’m gonna step it up and make a smuggler out of you. Corso?”

She doesn’t need to ask Corso anything. He just grins and nods. Cats grins back. They've been together from the start. There’s no splitting them now.

She claps her hands. “Right, let’s do this.”

And the crew cheers.

**Author's Note:**

> So, Cats doesn't go to Rakata Prime. Lana, Theron, and Jakaaro have to deal with that themselves, and it doesn't go well. Afterwards, Lana and Theron agree they need to get Cats back on side...


End file.
